Reset Windows Media Player 12 To Default Settings

I have been having a lot of troubles with my Windows Media Player on Windows 7 but I found this cool trick that allows you to reset WMP12 back to it’s default settings. This might be handy if you are encountering any issues of your own.

Simply to go Start > Run (or hold down the Windows Key and press R) and type in the following:

msdt.exe -id WindowsMediaPlayerConfigurationDiagnostic

Press enter and follow the prompts to reset WMP.

I hope this helps someone!

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32 Responses to “Reset Windows Media Player 12 To Default Settings”

  1. Phil Phillips says:
    August 8, 2011 at 6:26 pm

    Thanks!! I’ve been looking for weeks (on and off)for a way to reset the defaults. This was it. I don’t know why they don’t make it easier to find and or figure out. ……just one single “reset defaults” button
    couldn’t be that hard to come up with….

  2. Steven H says:
    September 3, 2011 at 8:59 am

    I had this same problem and googled “windows media player default settings” and found this page with the solution. I did it and all is well. I was not able to burn cd’s that would work, and at first thought I had a bad batch of cd’s but then remembered I had changed some of the rip settings and it made me wonder if I had ‘screwed’ something up. I still don’t know if I was responsible for it not working, but regardless, now all is fine. Thank you very much for the fix solution.

  3. Rick T says:
    October 7, 2011 at 11:03 pm

    Another way is to open wmp, press Alt H, go to the help screen and then type in “media player settings troubleshooter”. It will then give you the link for the troubleshooter. The first thing the troubleshooter will do is ask if you would like to restore the wmp to it’s default settings.

  4. dnetplayer says:
    October 18, 2011 at 7:59 am

    Thanks a lot guys for this information..!

    The command is a pain to remember however..
    Try this:
    -Open WMP 12
    -Press F1
    -Type “troubleshooter” on the search bar and enter
    -Click the number 19 search result

    ^_^

  5. Tom C says:
    October 24, 2011 at 12:53 am

    Great fix! I made some changes to my WMP. At first everything worked properly, but after restarting the application, there was no audio. Your little “hint” get it working again. Point learned? Quit messing with stuff when you don’t know what you did.

  6. Mushfique Ahmed says:
    November 9, 2011 at 2:19 pm

    Yes Boss its works a lot

  7. James says:
    December 13, 2011 at 8:39 am

    How to get windows media player back to defaults if that doesn’t work
    Go to UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Media\12.O and delete all that is in that folder
    Also Go to UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Media Player and delete all that is in that folder

  8. Angshuman Sarkar says:
    January 26, 2012 at 12:26 pm

    Thanks For help…..

  9. Jon W. says:
    February 11, 2012 at 5:46 am

    Thanks, I found this helpful. I like short and effective instructions. Copy. Start, run, paste, next. Done. Well done sir.

  10. manuella says:
    February 14, 2012 at 6:34 am

    thanks thanks a lot you saved me i have spent so much time trying to solve this problem and the solution was so easy thanks kisses

  11. takis says:
    April 3, 2012 at 8:40 am

    A million thanks!!!!!!

  12. C. Chapman says:
    April 6, 2012 at 10:28 pm

    Thanks alot!! Works like a charm!

  13. winamp says:
    April 21, 2012 at 2:13 am

    Oh thanks, I was looking for it :)

  14. Tommy S says:
    April 24, 2012 at 2:38 am

    Great fix! Thanks for sharing!

  15. ravi says:
    May 15, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    good..it worked

  16. J. Lampert says:
    May 29, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    “Another way is to open wmp, press Alt H, go to the help screen and then type in “media player settings troubleshooter”. It will then give you the link for the troubleshooter. The first thing the troubleshooter will do is ask if you would like to restore the wmp to it’s default settings.”

    Perfect advice. My indexes were all messed up from moving videos around. This reset them. Thanks a million!!!

  17. H2Professor says:
    May 31, 2012 at 1:02 am

    I can’t believe how long it has taken to find this solution. Thank you! You deserve some kind of medal for this fix.

  18. SSanders says:
    June 14, 2012 at 11:31 am

    Unfortunately none of the suggestions worked for me :( ….even running the command line fix says it finds a problem, yet it does not fix it…any additional suggestions?

  19. Dman says:
    July 7, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    Thank you so much I thought it was hopeless but you showed me how!

  20. Abhinav says:
    August 9, 2012 at 4:38 am

    this is works great !!!!!!!!!!!

  21. Kelvin says:
    September 5, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    Didn’t help.

    Windows Media Player still has all its original content, and I still can’t delete some files.

  22. milan says:
    October 1, 2012 at 5:21 am

    thanks…………this is work

  23. angel minz says:
    October 18, 2012 at 11:35 am

    Thanks man for this wonderful fix…. there is nothing in this world which cannot be fixed while speaking abt computers… but some need extensive search, 1 or 2 searches nd i found ur fix for resetting the WMP12 settings… ty very much. was very easy,

    Regards
    angel minz

  24. Pepe says:
    October 30, 2012 at 3:21 am

    Excellent!!
    I had the same problem and with the default configuration everything worked again.
    Thank you!

  25. DhvL says:
    November 15, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    Requires a passkey provided by support professional.

  26. MHH says:
    January 7, 2013 at 8:27 am

    In the event that your corporate policy prevents the running of this troubleshooter, you can also drop to a command line and navigate to the folder wmplayer is in and type wmplayer.exe /resetall.
    The trouble shooter you mention was unable to start for me because of global policy object prevented it executing.

  27. MG19 says:
    March 7, 2013 at 11:24 pm

    Been having problems playing AVI files, tried this and also tried installing a codec pack, i have vlc player and realplayer and still cant play any films, anybody help?

  28. Nilesh Salpe says:
    April 22, 2013 at 1:26 am

    Billion Thanks !

  29. richiee says:
    April 26, 2013 at 8:50 am

    thanks.I was using media player classic and k-lite codecs and set exerything to also be used for windows media player.When I got rid of media player classic and k-lite codecs windows media player still had the changed settings and was messing up.This fix brought back windows media player to running fine again.You are the greatest.

  30. Raphael Torres says:
    May 27, 2013 at 12:37 am

    I found an easy way to reset WMP 12.
    1. Open WMP
    2. If you don’t see the menu bar [File, View, Play, Tools, Help] click on Organize>Layout>Show Menu Bar
    3. In the Menu bar click Tools>Avdanced>Restore Media Library.
    4. Pop up will say “Continuing will empty your media library and close the WMP. Do you wish to continue?
    5. Click Yes and your done!

  31. lemon65 says:
    June 6, 2013 at 7:19 pm

    YOUR THE BEST !

  32. skimaone says:
    June 10, 2013 at 5:47 am

    Excellent ! thanks a lot mate that solved my problem which was “Windows Media Player Has Stopped Working” appearing 2 seconds after opening the player

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